The Importance Of Trait Leadership

Managers have a many tasks to do on a daily basis, and one of the many tasks is their associates. Not all managers are capable to be leaders, in order to become a leader they must earn their associates trust, but also “inspire and motivate people to give their best” (Managing Leadership, 1996). Being a leader comes with a lot of responsibility and certain qualities that will make them an effective leader. A leader is defined as “someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority”, other than that they must “influence [their associates] to achieve goals”, which is also known as leadership (Robbins, Decenzo & Coulter, 2015). Theories based on traits, contingency, situational or transformational are just some leadership techniques

There are many theories that have developed because of the changing society, but also some have been disproved.

Trait leadership is the foundation of great leadership, but because the theory was based on having the traits. The theory of trait leadership states that if a person/manager does not have all of them, then they do not apply it to their leadership skills. The qualities that define a leader or manager have all the characters, but they were supposed to already have the characteristics when being appointed a higher position. These certain qualities are drive, desire to lead, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, intelligence, job-relevant knowledge and extraversion (Robbins, Decenzo& Coulter, 2015). The seven traits can be learned but from the theory the person must have inherited them from their family or just knew them already. “The search for specific traits in leaders has never yielded a list that can be used”, but there are certain traits that are common in many effective leaders (Taylor, 1994). One of the common traits is drive or motivation can make an impact on the environment around them. When a manager has motivated the people around them are also motivated. With no drive a manager will get nothing done and they would not care

“Women tend to act in a collegial manner and actively extend invitations to others to participate in decision making” (Taylor, 1994), but men use more of their authority to handle situations. The basics of trait leadership theory outline the person whom should be a leader, rather than the style they lead in. Genders tend to be conflicting sometimes because certain people relate to their opposite gender rather than the same. When using the basic traits of leadership assists the leader and defines the path of making an effective leader. Whether it may be a female or male in the position of a leader they must decide what method to take on the situation. They might use the contingency theory or if they are charismatic then transformational theory. If a leader has a certain trait that can motivate their followers, then a manager or management can promote them to have their peers give additional output. People respond to gender leadership differently. It varies from person to person, but one must know how to approach the situation, for example, when a new leader is appointed a person may not feel like the leader is competent because the method is different from their own point of view. In conclusion, gender determines which theory is used and how they will approach